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“As far as I can remember, I believe that we had a draft job description for our Liaison Governor of safeguarding and child protection in 2007. I do believe that shows that we were really concentrating on our processes. I cannot actually remember if it happened. If it did happen then that would have meant that my child protection co- ordinator in the school would have been reporting to that governor every term but I cannot remember if that draft job description became reality in 2007 onwards.”—Andrew Hunter, SCAI Witness Statement (17 November 2020)

“I always had a “pastoral heart” in my approach which is laudable but it is not appropriate when it comes to safeguarding and child protection issues. On reflection, it took me some time to realise and learn, for example with some members of staff, that my pastoral heart was irrelevant and what I should have done was immediately seek external advice. I should have been seeking advice externally and then starting the disciplinary process as soon as possible. My pastoral heart was also at the centre of my dealings with students. I would only ask a pupil to leave the school as a last resort. I felt that asking a pupil to leave was a sign of failure by the school.”

“I was too closely involved in the process and 1had to learn to step back and not be the first port of call if we were conducting an investigation. I could not do that until I had the resources but eventually I did have the resources. The regulators said that we had to increase the resources in the school and Governance agreed. I do not think we were deeply at fault. We were always thinking about the safety of the children but we could have done better. Once we realised that we had to do better, we fully engaged with the process.”—Andrew Hunter, SCAI Witness Statement (17 November 2020)

“After the suicide of a member of staff, James Rainy Brown, I was interviewed by the police for the whole of the next day. I had school lawyers with me and I told them that I wished to speak to the police about all of the challenges that I had faced in safeguarding and child protection. I gave the police everything. They had their correct procedures and they came back and demanded the audit trail. For every single one of the issues, we had an in-depth audit trail of what had been done but our audit trail needed more evidence of seeking external advice and/or the use of the disciplinary process We had this process and I worked on it with my bursar but it was not automatically instinctive for me to place someone immediately on the disciplinary process. I learned that.”

“You could ask why that took so long to learn? With the board of governors, I do not think that safeguarding and child protection assumed a high enough priority for some time. I think that would have been the case in quite a few independent schools especially boarding schools. I think boarding schools used to be unintentionally, quite inward looking places. You spend a lot of your time thinking about your colleagues and the students. It is a different ambience to a day school.”—Andrew Hunter, SCAI Witness Statement (17 November 2020)

“With the board of governors, I do not think that safeguarding and child protection assumed a high enough priority for some time. I think that would have been the case in quite a few independent schools especially boarding schools. I think boarding schools used to be unintentionally, quite inward looking places. You spend a lot of your time thinking about your colleagues and the students. It is a different ambience to a day school.”—Andrew Hunter, SCAI Witness Statement (17 November 2020)